


Working On It

by BilingualBird



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Finn is nice, Life on Jakku sucked, Nightmares, People Being Petty, Sarcasm, X-Wings, starships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 12:13:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5707639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BilingualBird/pseuds/BilingualBird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life after Starkiller was different for everyone:</p><p>   <em>“Wha—“ A rough tan hand draped itself awkwardly across his shoulder, and Finn could turn his head just enough to see a hint of ripped orange uniform and sticky black hair before the hand went limp and rolled back to the other side of the cockpit.</em></p><p>     Rey hoped she had caught Skywalker soon after one of his own ‘washing days’ because she really didn’t want to know what a dirty old ex-pilot hermit smelled like. Probably jet fuel and regret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Working On It

**Author's Note:**

> Hallo! In this story Rey is sarcastic, I think when being alone for so long one often becomes sarcastic or pessimistic. Just explaining before it happens. Also, she wasn't really raised by anyone as far as I'm concerned, I think her inner monologue would be rude and honest anyway.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the Star Wars franchise. This is simply my representation of them. I don't get money for this, otherwise I would have started a long time ago.

_“Traitor!”_

_Finn whipped around, the blue lightsaber nearly flying out of his hands, as he caught sight of a Stormtrooper standing amongst the piles of rubble._

_The Stormtrooper whipped his weapon out. “Traitor!”_

_From the piles of rubble behind him more Stormtroopers appeared, some regulation clean, others bloody and burnt and broken. They stumbled and marched and dragged themselves forward until they were so close he could smell the blood and the clean scent of their plastic armor. Finn stumbled backwards until his foot clanged against a piece of metal and he tripped backwards._

_Finn landed with an oomph in a burnt husk of an X-Wing, the lightsaber skittering out of his hands and across the ground He sat stunned for a second, staring out at the still advancing Stormtroopers before a rustling from over his shoulder drew his attention._

_“Wha—“ A rough tan hand draped itself awkwardly across his shoulder, and Finn could turn his head just enough to see a hint of ripped orange uniform and sticky black hair before the hand went limp and rolled back to the other side of the cockpit._

_**Poe, oh god, Poe!** _

_Finn struggled around in his seat until his back was to the advancing Stormtroopers. His hands becoming bloody as he desperately pulls at the twisted metal separating him from Poe. A shot from a blaster hit a panel above his head and showered sparks into his eyes._

_“Poe! Poe, get up!” But what little he could see of Poe’s body remained unmoving. A dirty nose, a ragged arm, a shoulder cut to the bone by debris. Another blaster shot clipped Finn’s back, spinning his body almost all the way back around in the confined space._

_The Stormtroopers, his brothers, were twenty feet away and the debris had long since become sand. Finn turned his head back towards Poe’s body and waited for the final shot, his back burning in agony from even that small action._

_A deep electrical hum followed by several thuds made him turn his head back._

_Rey was standing her back to him in front of his broken little X-Wing, discarded lightsaber in hand and her desert garb whipping in the wind. She looked strangely out of place in the sands. Beyond her a few of the Stormtroopers were now laying on the ground, smoking holes in their armor from where their shots had rebounded off of the lightsaber._

_**“Rey!”** Finn’s voice was scratched by emotion and X-Wing parts and sand. “Rey!_

_But Rey didn’t turn around, didn’t acknowledge him. She simply twirled her lightsaber with a skilled flick of her wrist and charged forward towards the Stormtroopers. The twirl of her lightsaber almost like a fast-paced incredibly unfortunate dance._

_And for a second Finn allowed himself to believe that everything would be okay, that after days of running it would be okay._

_But his back seared with pain from top to bottom._

_And Rey’s dance was slowing, the lightsaber movements more jagged and slow, and the Stormtroopers weren’t stopping. More and more white figures rose of the sand dunes until the light brown ground wasn’t visible. A dark red light suddenly twisted around the blue one and a scream sounded once across the desert, not even echoing as the blue light flickered out and the Stormtroopers turned as one away from Rey’s body and towards him. Kylo Ren at the front of the procession._

_“Traitor.” They said, each word a step closer to him._

_“Back to recalibration.”_

_“No need for a defective Stormtrooper.”_

_“Incinerate him then.”_

_**“You killed us.”** _

_**“Joined the Resistance.”** _

_**“Fire!”** And his world exploded in a million flashes of white light._

 

“Finn, take deep breaths buddy,” a voice was saying into his ear, “You gotta take deep breaths, you gotta calm down!”

“P-Poe,” his whole body was shaking trying to breath, his chest was crushing him, and his throat was collapsing on itself. “Rey!”

Crashed X-Wings and motionless Poes and bloody Reys filled his vision, overlapped by white, white everywhere.

“Rey’s fine, Finn,” and a calloused set of hands were gripping his own, “And I think I’m doing pretty damn well now that you’re awake!”

Finn turned his head barely half an inch to the side and was met with the welcome sight of Poe Dameron’s tired, but smiling face. The white had been the ceiling, th _ere were no Stormtroopers attacking, no dead Poe, no dead Rey—_

“I’ll cut you off right there, buddy,” Poe’s grip on Finn’s hands tightened marginally. “No Stormtroopers here, we’re back at Base, and Rey’s fine.”

Finn felt his eyes roll a little in his head, from relief or exhaustion he didn’t know. The pressure on his chest slowly let up, and he became aware of a fierce burning pain across his back and his bones felt like they were trying to fall out of his body. He must have made some kind of expression because Poe was calling for a doctor in moments.

A scraggly Twi’lek doctor and a medical droid swept into the room within seconds, taking up residence on the opposite side of the bed from Poe. The Twi’lek seemed surprised Finn was awake.

“My name is Chom’atar, but you may refer to me as simply Chom when you can talk again,” the Twi’lek gave Finn a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, you’ll be better in no time.”

The medical droid set off in a series of loud chirps that made absolutely no sense to Finn. 

“Do you remember your fight with Kylo Ren?” Chom translated for the droid. “Just blink twice for ‘yes’, three times for ‘no’. At this point you won’t have enough strength to move much else.” 

Finn blinked twice. Chom seemed somewhat relieved by this, as did Poe, who was still hovering awkwardly by Finn’s right side, his hands tightening over Finn’s as the droid and Twi’lek duo went over his injuries.

The droid chirped excitedly.

“Yes, yes, no loss of short term memory, very good indeed. The good news is that Kylo Ren’s lightsaber cauterized the wound, which prevented you from bleeding out as well as a whole host of other medical problems.” Chom sighed. “The bad news is that the wound was, well, cauterized. The blade nearly severed your spinal cord, and while our bacta tanks and advanced healing would normally do the job after some surgery, the blade also managed to cauterize bone and nerve endings.”

Finn felt like he would throw up if he could find the strength to retch, and Poe’s grip felt like it was cutting off circulation to his hands. Their faces must have shown how bad the prognosis sounded because Chom hurriedly finished his explanation, arms flapping in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring manner.

“There’s no need to worry, we had the best surgeons in the galaxy fix you up! The problem was that the cauterized nerve endings was resolved by almost scraping away the cauterized bits, as you would say it. Because of this your body will take longer to heal, and you’ll feel extremely tired for the next few months. It’s simply your body working in overdrive to put the helpful chemicals we’re introducing into your system to good use.”

Poe gave Chom a searching look. “So Finn will be back to full health? He’s gonna recover fully?”

Finn wanted to cry in gratitude for Poe asking the question he couldn’t. What if he couldn’t recover? What use would he be then? What would the Resistance do to a crippled ex-Stormtrooper?

“I believe he will, indeed, make a full recovery,” Chom had a thoughtful look on his face. “Though it will take a few months, physical therapy, loads of bacta sessions and undoubtedly some large amounts of pain and frustration, I think we’ll have you good as new, though with a large scar.”

This time Finn did cry in relief, tears dripping warmly down his cheeks until Poe wiped them away with the hot orange sleeve of his uniform. Both of them had smiles on their faces.

Chom leant over to give Finn a quick shot, which he almost didn’t feel over the throbbing pain in his back, which had seemingly been re-awakened by the discussion of it. “This should help with the pain, it’ll also put you out for a good few days.” Chom turned to herd his droid out the door. “Dameron, say what you need to say and go get some sleep too.” Chom gave Poe a friendly scowl before disappearing out the door, leaving Finn and Poe alone.

After a few seconds of simply staring at each other Poe realized that Finn couldn’t exactly ‘go first’, and he awkwardly shuffled his feet, though his grip on Finn’s hands hadn’t lessened one bit. 

“Rey wanted to be here, but we figured out the map to Skywalker.” Poe shrugged his shoulders, looking a bit torn. “She really wanted to stay, almost told General Organa to stuff it, but Chewbacca asked her to go with him, apparently the Wookie was friends with Skywalker. Guess he wanted to tell Skywalker about Han Solo himself, basically guilted Rey into going, and—”

Poe put his head down with a _smack_ on the bed next to Finn’s chest. From this angle the only thing Finn could see was Poe’s uniform, his hair, and his hands still clenching Finn’s own.

Poe’s body began to shake, and Finn would have thought he was sobbing if Poe hadn’t thrown his head back and laughed! The sound carried around the room, joyful and desperate, as a few tears dripped down Poe’s face, some snot clinging unattractively to his nose, but his mouth still stuck in a smile so wide it threatened to cut his face in half.

“Don’t scare me like that, Finn!” Poe’s face suddenly became serious again. “First with the crash near Jakku, now this, it’s really to—, it really scared me when Rey brought you back. Your eyes were just open, dead, oh god, it scared me so bad…” Poe trailed off and visibly tried to collect himself. Finn felt like he was clawing at the surface of his skin from the inside out, trying to reassure Poe, trying to talk to him, but completely lacking the strength to even move his tongue.

“I’ve got to go now, repairs and training and all, but I’ll be back,” Poe gave his hands another squeeze. “And I’ll try to contact Rey to tell her that you’re awake, she’s gonna be really glad to hear it.”

Finn felt the medication begin to kick in, his eyes starting to droop, and drew on that same energy he had somehow found during his fight with Kylo Ren to feebly squeeze Poe’s hands back.

It made his whole arm feel numb, but the look of wonder and joy on Poe’s face as he had left the room had been worth it.

As Finn dropped back off into sleep, that was all he could think.

All of this was worth it.

 

Rey folded her arms in front of her chest, slouched her shoulders and glared waspishly at Chewbacca from her position in the pilot’s seat of the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca simply ignored her, and after a few minutes she was forced to unwind her arms and straighten up in order to reach a few blinking switches over her head. She glared harder to make up for this.

Chewbacca had insisted she come, and for all that she had wanted to stomp her feet, say ‘no’, skip away to take a shower that _used actual water what the hell_ , and then go sit by Finn’s bed until he woke up, she couldn’t. Because she had seen Han Solo die, she had seen Finn almost die, and a part of her was screaming ‘I’ll be damned if I did all of this for nothing’. 

However much she didn’t like it, and however much she didn’t want to listen to it, this was the same part of her that was bent on beating the ever living shit out of Kylo Ren next time he was on the same planet, so it must have some credibility. 

As she had climbed into the pilot’s seat earlier in the week, she had tried to convince herself that she was only coming because General Organa would probably have dumped her ass back in Jakku if she hadn’t agreed, but Chewie’s smug looks did little to help.

As she piloted the Falcon through the atmosphere of ( _holy shit this planet is made of like 85% fucking water, take Skywalker back and leave me here_ ) some abandoned old planet, all Rey could do was feel angry. 

Who did this guy think he was, acting all important and stuff? If he wanted to live the rest of his days out on a fucking island (not that Rey would have been adverse to that, like holy shit there’s so much water) like a hermit, then it was his own problem. What did the Resistance need him for anyway? Poe was a great pilot, and from what she’d seen he was on about the same level of ’25% skill, 25% luck and 50% how the fuck did he do that?’ that Skywalker had been in his youth.

R2D2 beeped loudly from next to her, jarring herself out of her internal rant so that she could give the bot a half fond half amused look, because _where did a droid learn to cuss like that?_

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll go find your master, no worries, R2D2!” She smiled down at the droid as she hurriedly put her bag around her shoulder, checking one last time to make sure the lightsaber and her other supplies were accounted for. Because for all that she was pissed about this situation, the last thing she wanted to do was get on the magnanimous droid’s bad side. 

She stepped quickly down the ramp, stumbling to a halt halfway down when she caught sight of the stone stairway. 

“No, I’m not doing that, maybe we should park higher up? Should we just go bac—“

She turned around and smacked face first into Chewbacca’s hairy chest. He gave her a lamenting growl and pushed her the rest of the way down the ramp. Rey sighed, throwing one last hopeful look back at the Falcon only to see Chewie somewhat cruelly flip the switch to bring the ramp back up, before starting her climb.

By the time she had reached the top of the mountain, Rey was thirsty and sore from the lightsaber banging into her hip. In all honesty the whole climb had been a cakewalk compared to her daily jaunts into the old battleships on Jakku, but here she was, surrounded by water on all sides and thirsty. Rey reached up to wipe some sweat away from her forehead, only to discover there was none, and stopped for a moment to marvel at what a breeze and a whole planet **covered in freaking water** could do to a hike.

After another few minutes of walking along a ridge Rey came upon a hooded figure. Rey stopped a safe distance away, and slowly pulled the lightsaber out of her bag. She took a moment to ponder what would happen if this hermit turned out to not be Skywalker before giving an internal shrug and holding the lightsaber out. If he attacked, then at least her weapon would be pointing the right way. 

The cloaked man turn around revealing a scarred, rather stern face. The beard made the man look pretty worn, but Rey figured that after living on your own for a while, one simply puts less importance in appearance, after all, she would know. Finn had managed to catch her right after cleaning day, he hadn’t realized how lucky he was when the Falcon hadn’t been immediately embroiled in dirty sweaty scent the first time the ramp had shut behind them. 

Rey hoped she had caught Skywalker soon after one of his own ‘washing days’ because she really didn’t want to know what a dirty old ex-pilot hermit smelled like. Probably jet fuel and regret.

The man stared at her and for lack of a better thing Rey stared back.

“So, are you Luke Skywalker?” Rey asked.

“Who’s wondering?” Skywalker, oh man did Rey really hope this guy was Skywalker, seemed a little wary.

“I’m Rey, I’m—“ _being held hostage by a Wookie and desperate to get the hell off this planet and back to Finn and Poe_ “I’m with the Resistance. We found your map. General Organa needs you to come back.”

“Is Leia alright? I mean, General Organa?” Luke’s face had twisted into a concerned look, his eyebrows scrunched together. 

“General Organa is alright, physically I think.” Rey gingerly lowered the lightsaber back to her side. “A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I’ve been told that the First Order has gained lots over power recently, General Organa is says it will soon rival the Empire as far as manpower goes, and the Starkiller managed to destroy a few planets before we could blow it up—“

Luke’s face had become more and more troubled the farther she went into her explanation and Rey felt even worse about the bombshell she was about to drop on him.

“A-and, during the mission we encountered Kylo Ren,” Rey rambled quickly through the rest of her explanation. “Han Solo, the smuggler, was killed by him.”

Luke’s face darkened, the scars on his face casting shadows across his cheeks. He crossed the distance between himself in Rey in a mere second, following Rey even as she took a few startled steps backwards.

“Han Solo is dead?” One of Luke’s hands went to his head, knocking off his hood and grabbing at his grey streaked hair. “Kylo Ren killed him?”

“Y-yes sir,” Rey froze in place, watching warily as Skywalker’s other hand, a mechanical miracle if she’d ever seen one, but still terrifying, joined his flesh hand on his head, clenching and unclenching with startling speed and force. 

A deep force in her bones pulled her down and Rey was reminded of her life in Jakku, when women searching for their lost partners had found only bodies and blood, and of how they screamed and clawed at their faces and hair, how their eyes got bright like the midday sands before flattening into nothing. Of the men who went broke in a game of cards and the desperate look that had slowly crept over their face before acceptance and anger, when they would do anything to _just not lose._

Luke Skywalker had the same look as the flat women and losing men.

Rey swiftly took several steps away from the man, the lightsaber disappearing into her bag in favor of the familiar staff that she swung off of her shoulders. Luke Skywalker might have been a famous pilot for the Resistance, but if he was like the people on Jakku, he was a danger to her.

Luke gave a full body twitch, and his hands lowered from his head to hover in front of his chest in a non-threatening manner. The shadows that had grown across his face disappearing as he turned slightly to face her better. 

Rey relaxed slightly as the deep tugging in her bones slowly became less intense.

“I came to this island because the flow of the Force here is very strong, however, it is pointed inwards, thus isolating me from the outside worlds while still keeping my connection with the Force strong.” Luke closed his eyes and sighed. “I see now that isolating myself was a bad decision.” He gave Rey a small sad smile. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“I-it’s okay, Pilot Skywalker,” Rey shifted from her defensive stance, though she didn’t sling her staff back around her shoulder, “Will you return with me? Chewbacca and R2D2 are near the shore with the Millennium Falcon.”

Luke nodded. “Yes, I will return with you, I’ll go retrieve my things, I’ll meet you at the Falcon, okay?”

“Yeah, it's no problem!”

Except that the walk back down had been even more troubling than the walk back up, because for all that Rey wanted to be pissed at Skywalker for dragging her away from Finn, she felt sympathy for the man and his loss. Rey shook her head as she caught herself thinking how much easier it was on Jakku when she hadn’t had to feel sympathy, only dislike, anger and on some rare occasions a sense of tolerance. Life in the Resistance would be different, but at least she had people she could like and love.

 

Nearly an hour later Rey was sitting on the shore of the island in the shade of the Millennium Falcon. She dipped her toes in the cool water and wondered what it would have been like to grow up around so much of the stuff. Maybe she would have even swum in it. Luke’s approach dragged her from her thoughts.

The older man appeared to grow a few years younger when he caught sight of the Millennium Falcon. His pace picked up and he practically bounded up the ramp to collide with Chewie, who had caught sight of Luke and come to great him. They hugged for a minute, and just as Rey felt like she was intruding Chewie pulled back from the hug and full on backhanded Luke across the face.

Rey was on her feet in an instant. While she was surprised by the sudden change in attitude, she couldn’t say she blamed Chewie for it, and she couldn’t repress her own smug grin. At least she wasn’t the only one a little pissed at the guy.

Luke Skywalker rolled onto his feet quickly and even though his hands were cradling his jaw, he managed to send Chewie a boyishly shamefaced look. “I guess I might have deserved that one.”

Chewbacca growled out something that even Finn would probably understand. “You think?”

 

The nearly a week long trip back to the base was one of the weirdest trips in Rey’s life. Not that she’d ever been on many trips. 

Chewie piloted most of the way, insisting that only Rey could fit into some of the places that needed repairs, which was true, but it seemed more like Chewie was leaving her out like some sort of lamb for slaughter because Skywalker practically pounced on her anytime she was alone with questions about the outside world. When she asked why he didn’t just talk to Chewbacca, Luke had embarrassedly explained that Chewie wasn’t talking to him at the moment.

“I’ve been out of contact for a while, I’m not exactly up to date with everything.”

This was the third time he’d tried to have this conversation, the guy wasn’t taking a hint and Rey had had enough.

“Look,” she whipped around from the broken circuit she was rewiring, “I’m in the exact same ship as you! I grew up in Jakku, I never left the planet until a few weeks ago, beyond the basic well-known First Order propaganda and the shit I learned when Kylo Ren tried to mind-torture me, I’ve got no fucking clue what’s happening, okay!” Rey threw her screw driver down in a fit of frustration at the blank look on Luke’s face. “If I’m being honest here, I don’t even know what’s so important about you! You’re just some _old pilot_ who destroyed a Death Star, but Poe’s the best pilot in the Resistance, _and he_ just destroyed Starkiller!”

Rey jammed her finger into Luke’s chest, throwing caution to the wind and continues her rant because she really doesn’t have a clue what’s going on and it makes her angry and weak and maybe she is just a girl from Jakku.

“So excuse me for not being able to answer your every question, sir, but I would be back taking care of Finn and his injuries if it wasn’t for you!”

Luke Skywalker’s face was so blank Rey could have drawn battle plans on it. The deep roaring sensation in her bones sprung up again for a split second before Luke’s face broke into the biggest grin she’d ever seen and the older man practically collapsed from laughing so hard.

“You really don’t know who I am?” Luke wiped a tear away from his face. “I-I’m a Jedi.”

**Oh shit.**

“That’s my lightsaber in your bag.”

 **Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.** Rey felt her blood freeze in her veins as Luke continued to chuckle. He’s gonna kill her, oh god. She insulted a Jedi, and he’s gonna kill her and what about Finn, what about Poe, _I haven’t even showered yet!_

“I can feel your fear in the force,” Luke sobered instantly and laid a hand on her arm. “You don’t need to worry, I haven’t laughed that hard in ages, and I’m not one to hurt others for simply stating their opinions.”

“O-okay,” Rey swallowed nervously. “I, um, I’m sorry, I’ll get your lightsaber for you, it might be pretty bashed up though,” Rey dug hurriedly through her bag. “Finn and I fought Kylo Ren with it.”

She turned around and basically shoved the lightsaber into Luke’s hands before catching his surprised look.

“You and _who_ did _what_ with this?”

“Finn, he’s, um, he’s an ex-Stormtrooper, he defected to save Poe, the pilot who had the whereabouts of your map, and we ended up, well, fighting Kylo Ren with it.” Rey shuffled her feet. “That’s why I was so angry, Finn was hurt pretty badly by Kylo Ren, he still wasn’t awake when I left, I’m worried about him.”

Luke gave her an appraising look. “Well, that’s a better reason than most to rant at a Jedi.”

“How was I supposed to know you were a Jedi!” Rey felt like stomping her feet.

“Well, generally it’s the robes, or the metal hand,” Luke gave her a serene look.

“I come from Jakku, everyone from the butcher to the local whore’s mother dresses in robes like those.” Rey grinned smugly at Luke before picking up her screw driver and continuing her repair work. 

After a few seconds she heard footsteps as Luke retreated back to the main bay of the ship and allowed herself to collapse in relief. She started to chuckle and almost ended up crying. _She had just insulted a Jedi_ , and he hadn’t killed or horribly maimed her, which meant many of the stories she’d heard in Jakku had been wrong. She mentally cursed. First Order propaganda taken without a grain of salt was coming back to bite her in the ass.

Rey kicked the panel she had been working on and smiled as it clunked back into place. Communications wouldn’t be up until the Falcon got back to the base, as an asteroid fragment had crushed part of the ship’s hull in the exact place where literally everything important was, but at least she’d managed to fix the hot water heater.

Twenty years of being inhabited solely by an old smuggler and a Wookie hadn’t done the ship any wonders.

She sighed forlornly, hoping that they reached the base soon, because she didn’t know how much longer she could handle being in a confined space with an angry Wookie, and surly droid and the surprise Jedi Luke Skywalker.

Rey hoped Finn was okay. 

As long as he was okay, she told herself, it would all be worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave constructive criticism or point out mistakes!
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading and have a nice day!


End file.
